Monument to Pity: I'd like to keep this cycle open to any deck of that colour, so Art tribal feels a bit too parasitic.
Bare Mannequin: Soul Separator feels like a nice place to start, but I'm unsure if it really is worth a slot power wise — the main purpose of Soul Separator was to be a reanimation spell. Alternatively, I was thinking of using the mechanical trope where the creature can be picked apart like Noosegraf Mob or Oathsworn Knight to signify that the creature is made of pieces attached together, representing limbs and organs.
Maybe +1/+1 counters could represent the limbs in this version. I had a concept I found interesting power wise that plays with this idea of being able to transform the body, though the flavour aspect is a little looser:
For the white one, I've bee looking into a kind of Ajani's Pridemate where the +1/+1 counters represent the guest and something happens when you reach 13. I couldn't find what to do to represent betrayal in white flavour wise, but I got this concept that I thought was interesting mechanically:
@ningyounk what about making a cleric token whenever you gain life for the first time each turn then having an effect when you control 12 or more creatures?
1) I already used the "1 token/turn bullet" on another design in white (Warming Prayers) on top of having another token generator in that colour (Court Maester) so it would require switching things around a lot. On the other hand, I didn't have an evergrowing creature in white yet.
2) I figured having an Ajani's Pridemate-like card would be amazing in this set regardless, so I thought it could be worth the exciting legendary slot.
_
I think changing the name of the Fatal Banquet would be a good start actually. If it didn't mention anything bad happening in its name, it would be less dissonant flavourfully and probably easier to design as it sounds like the player is building towards a punishment instead of a reward otherwise.
Alright, I've been scratching my hear for the past week on how to make the legendary Art creatures tick but 90% of the cool designs I can come up with don't fit uncommon. Considering it was this hard to find five good illustrations to begin with, I think the best play is actually to save those for rare/mythic in the end.
In their place, I'm revisiting a bit the idea of having strong finishers that care about your life total. Here are some examples:
WHITE — 2WW 2/2 Flying Gets +1/+1 for each life you have more than your starting life total.
BLUE — That's going to be the tough one.
BLACK — 4BB 10/10 Flying Gets -X/-X, where X is your life total.
RED — 3RR 0/5 As long as it's attacking a player, gets +X/+0, where X is the difference between that player's life total and your life total. (N.B: Meant to help aggro fight against a lof of life gain as this scales with the life gain abilities of the opponent.)
GREEN 3GG 5/* Trample CARDNAME's toughness is equal to your life total.
I've been a bit busy (I live in France and we're going into a semi-lockdown again because of COVID19) but I'm still trying to post at least every week-end ^^
For this week, I polished the cycle above a bit. For the blue member, I figured that the simplest, most elegant effect similar to the others that was missing was "-X/-0 where X is the opponent's life total". So here it is, a cycle of Avatars that care about life totals in different ways:
This leaves the uncommon set skeleton at this stage so far:
Now, the missing slots are destined for glue cards. Among the ones we discussed already, here are some that I really liked because they really pull he different archetypes together:
I'm going to try and see what's missing from here to either fill the missing slots, add some abilities to the existing cards to fit some important holes, or straight up remove some cards to make rooms for what's missing.
I know you probably have all your archetypes set up and everything, but I came across something that I thought was cool and thought, "You know, that'd make a cool archetype for Rezatta." The idea is a BRG archetype that gets stronger if an opponent has a lot of life. I don’t know, just thought I’d run it past you. Also, Rezatta looks awesome so far!
An suggestion: ____________________________________ Serran Beauty 3W ____________________________________ Enchantment ____________________________________ Whenever you gain non-serran life, you gain that much serran life. (Pay 2 serran life: Add one mana of any color.) 2WW: Target creature gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the amount of serran life you have. _____________________________________
@joemamajoe , Serran Beauty seems like a dangerous design. Could do some degenerate things with Nourishing Shoal, Children of Korlis, Martyr of Sands and such.
@RandomFandom The "become stronger as your opponent gets more life" is a bit too niche to be a dedicated archetype because it doesn't do anything unless your opponent specifically plays a life gain deck. However, it is a part of the strategy of the BRW suicide aggro archetype in the set! Because any aggro deck would struggle in a set with a lot of life gain, one of the answers I'm trying to implement is making sure that the aggro decks scale as their opponent gain life. I'm trying to be subtle about it though, for instance by using Renaissance triggers (the cards hint that you're supposed to hurt the opponent to enable them, but they are also active if the opponent gains more than 3 life in the same turn) or by caring if the opponent has more life than you, which is meant to synergise with the life payment BRW theme but also punishes the opponent for gaining life.
Xyurn, Avatar of Fury above is exactly a try at answering the question "how does aggro keep up with a lot of life gain?" It doesn't matter if the opponent has 100 life, just one hit of this creature will bring their life total back to yours.
@Potato13 It's definitely an interesting concept but I feel like the first mode wouldn't be worth the cost as a worse Heat Ray, while Discover X times is a bit awkward as if you pump a lot of mana in the X, you don't have much mana left to cast the cards you discover so this probably would end up being "pay a lot of mana and a lot of life to play a single spell from the top of your library".
@joemamajoe It's an ability I'd be very interested in having in the set, though I agree with potato13 that it sounds more like a rare or mythic rare ability than uncommon a priori. I also think a replacement ability would be more elegant as this doubles your life gain. Here's an old design we were discussing with a similar ability for instance:
We're at the last stage of finishing the first rough draft of the uncommon set skeleton. The next step will be filling the remaining slots (3 black, 2 red, 3 green) with glue cards. The more archetypes they synergise with, the better. Surge of Joy is a perfect example, it's amazing in WU storm (basically enabling playing two spells that turn for no cost), amazing in WB (enables Renewal that turn at no cost at all), and great in GW as it gives you serran life.
After that, there's going to be a lot of math when we look at the missing staple effects and calculate the as-fan for each theme before modifying the cards so everything looks balanced-ish on paper and no archetype seems overly advantaged. At that point, it will be ready to be playtested and I'll make a clean new thread for that part ^^
Do you know what page the archetypes are on again? I'd like to continue helping with this amazing project, but I've gotten a little disconnected as of late.
I got you, the latest version of the archetypes I've been working with are:
WU (+R): 2nd spell matters UB (+G): Art enters/leaves the battlefield BR (+W): Life payment aggro RG (+U): Creatures are bigger if your life total is even GW (+B): Serran life matters
WB: Renewal (3 life must be gained and/or lost every turn) UR: Discover matters BG: +1/+1 counters matter RW: Creatures with power 2 or less tribal GU: Masterwork
Nothing new is added here -- some pictures are probably outdated. But made here since it took me some time to go back and see which cards referred to what :P
@LyndonF Oh that's really nice to do that, thanks a lot! I was lazy and wanted to wait until the skeleton was complete before doing the recap myself x)
CARD NAME - 3GG Creature - INSERT TYPE When ~ enters the battlefield, if you have 30 or more life, ~ becomes your masterwork. Whenever ~ attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on it. If it's your masterwork, put three +1/+1 counters on it instead. 4/3
CARD NAME - 2BB Creature - INSERT TYPE As an additional cost to cast ~, you may pay 3 life. When ~ enters the battlefield, if you paid 3 life, put two +1/+1 counters on it. 3/3
CARD NAME - 1WW Enchantment Whenever one or more creatures you control attack, you gain serran life equal to the number of attacking creatures. Renewal - As long as the sum of all life gained and lost this turn is 3 or more, creatures you control get +1/+1.
CARD NAME - U Creature - Art Spirit Flying Sacrifice ~: Discover. Activate this ability only if ~ dealt combat damage this turn. 1/1
@Potato13 Masterwork card: The first ability looks weird with how the other masterwork cards play since becoming a masterwork is not supposed to be that much of a reward, it's more about offering a strategic decision on what creature you want as your masterwork. I like the last ability, I wanted some kind of "if CARDNAME is your masterwork, bonus" card at uncommon, I'm thinking a colorless card that would help you filter your mana colors to enable a five-colours masterwork meme. I was thinking of adding something like 'as long as CARDNAME is your masterwork, it gets +3/+3" but that ability with +1/+1 counters could fit nicely on it as well (though three +1/+1 counters might be a bit swingy, it feels rare to me). Here's a try:
Black card: Could totally make a nice glue card depending on what's missing from the skeleton. I have to do the math but I think I overshooted dramatically on the creature count xD
White Renaissance card: I love this concept but I usually prefer to have either small repeatable serran life gain or one-shot bursts for larger serran life gains. This is repeatable large bursts of serran life gain, so I think it's better to keep it for Rare/Mythic.
Blue card: Could work as a glue card if we need a cheap creature in blue, I like how it synergises really nicely with all four blue archetypes at once, that's exactly the type of designs we need right now ^^
Other card suggestions, mostly stuff that always appears at uncommon in a set like removal / ramp / others, and a bit of archetype hate or support for a theoretical standard.
CARD NAME - W Instant Target creature you control gains indestructible until end of turn. If it has power 2 or less, draw a card.
CARD NAME - 1W Creature - INSERT TYPE When ~ attacks, you may have defending player gain 3 life. If you do, ~ gets +3/+3 until end of turn. 2/2
CARD NAME - 1U Enchantment At the beginning of your upkeep or whenever you cast a spell, put a charge counter on ~. Remove two charge counters from ~: Discover.
Failing Fruition - 1BB Sorcery Destroy target creature. If it was your masterwork, each opponent discards two cards and loses 2 life.
CARD NAME - R Sorcery ~ Deals 5 damage to target creature. Excess damage is dealt to you instead.
CARD NAME - G Sorcery Search your library for a basic land card, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library. You gain 2 life.
CARD NAME - 1G Instant Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn by non-masterwork creatures
Indestructible W: Could totally work, white does need a protection spell at the moment and the directional white card (Dance Leader) is on the lesser directional side right now.
Opponent gains life 1W: It's a bit weird to give life to the opponent on attack, and I don't think the synergies would be enough to justify using this in the set in the absence of a group hug archetype.
Repeatable Discover 1U: Could work but would be weird to trigger whenever you cast a spell while there is a whole archetype in blue that cares about casting spells beyond your first. It creates a bit of friction with the Arcane Folio, which is very wordy but I'd still be interested in trying how it plays first.
Destroy your masterwork 1BB: I don't want to encourage players to sacrifice their masterwork to streamline the gameplay and send a clear message about what to do. The masterwork archetype should be entirely focused on making the biggest most absurd creature in combat. Then we can include some sacrifice synergies with other cards, but I really want to avoid them being directional and having the word masterwork on them.
Excess damage deal to you R: Really interesting idea! And we're in need of a creature-only damage spell in red.
Tutor a basic G: We already have a one-mana card that tutors a basic land at common so the ramp uncommon will need to tutor at least two lands directly onto the battlefield, I think.
Fog G: I like the idea of having a fog in the set as it plays well with the GW serran life archetype gameplay, but that's also why I'd rather have not have it associated with the masterwork archetype in a directional way.
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I've put all the previous designs inside a file to look at the potential structural problems (I went free style while designing them and preferred to adjust later the cards between cycles rather than having too many restrictions during design, but this is the time where we need to adjust some stuff).
GENERAL: • There are too many creatures (39 out of 60 monocoloured cards). The goal now is to bring that number as close to 30 as possible by turning some designs into noncreature spells, or removing some non-essential creatures.
WHITE: • 8 creatures. Could remove at least one. The Sacred Confreres probably isn't necessary, the final design didn't really live up to my expectations anyways, so I removed it. • White really needs a protection slot so I used potato's design above, which replaces the Sacred Confreres:
• All creatures except one are 2/2. There is a dire need to adjust the stats curve. Hence: - Inspiring Archpriest --> 3/4 for 5 (was 2/2 for 3) - Rays, Avatar of Victory --> 3/3 (was 2/2, which was probably a bit weak) - Four-Hands Composer --> stays 2/3 but always grant double strike (had weird ability) - Serran Soulwarden --> 2/1 and gains flying (was 2/2) - Dance Leader--> 3/1 (was 2/2)
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So here are the twelve monowhite cards once adjusted:
@ningyounk , a few thoughts about the cards there:
1. Growling Missionary is definitely a color pie break; White doesn't get those types of 1 mana 2/2's with downsides (Their 1 mana 2/2's generally have some restriction to when or how you cast them, if at all, and not a minor downside that allows you to play it regardless of the board state), and it doesn't lose themselves life.
I feel like it could be a 1 mana 2/1 that gains you 1 serra life when it enters, or be exchanged for another instant or sorcery spell.
2. Dance Leader should definitely be rare with a potent statline and ability like that, and could possibly be exchanged with an instant or sorcery spell.
3. Surge of Joy should be cut or nerfed; it allows you to play with a 56 card deck, easily fix mana, gain life when needed and ramp into 3-drop much easier. Two similar cards, Manamorphose and Gitaxian Probe, were banned / were discussed about being banned in multiple formats.
I'll post more design concepts for both blue and white later.
Here are some designs I thought of that fit multiple archetypes:
UU
Enchantment UC Masterwork Whenever you cast a spell beyond the first each turn, your masterwork gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
Archetypes: WU Second Spell, GU Masterwork ——— 1R Creature UC Haste Whenever ~ attacks, discover and ~ deals 2 damage to you. 2/1 (I had also thought of making this a 3 mana 2/2 and removing the “deals 2 damage to you part”)
Archetypes: GU Discover, RW Power 2 or less, the minor red theme for second spell matters (because it discovers cards), and possibly BR reckless aggro ——— W Creature UC Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, you gain life equal to its mana cost. 1/1 (I had an idea of instead of gaining life equal to mana cost, it could be just gain 2 serran life instead)
Archetypes: RW Power 2 or less, WB Gain/lose 3 or more life, and possibly (using the second idea) GW serran life ——— Moonlight Muse
1B
Creature - Art UC Pay 2 life: Target Art creature you control gets +1/+1 until end of turn. 1/2
Archetypes: UB Art tribal, BR Reckless aggro (sort of?), WB Gain/lose 3 or more life ——— 3G Creature UC Remove a +1/+1 counter from ~: You gain 1 serran life. At the beginning of your end step, put a +1/+1 counter on ~. 2/4
Archetypes: BG +1/+1 counters, RG Even life total, GW Serran Life matters
Here's three other alternative ideas for uncommons that could potentially be used:
CARD NAME - 3W Sorcery Create three 1/1 white CARD TYPE creature tokens with lifelink.
Purpose: Fits into 2 or less power and 3 life gained/lost.
CARD NAME - 1W Instant Choose two -- *You gain 5 life. *Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn. *Tap up to two target creatures.
Purpose: As an interesting modal card that has value in most decks, and could be a good sideboard card for aggro decks or control decks in standard.
CARD NAME - W Enchantment - Aura Enchant creature you control When ~ enters the battlefield, you gain 2 serran life. W, Sacrifice ~: Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and gains indestructible until end of turn.
Purpose: Usable proactively in 2nd spell matters and 2 or less power decks, and can be used well in Serran Life matters. The +2/+2 can also be changed to +1/+1 and indestructible can be changed to protection, if needed or wanted.
I stumbled on this set when searching for an up-to-date breakdown of a common/uncommon skeleton and I really love it. The flavour is so good: the art is AMAZING, and the designs do an amazing job at taking a flavourful concept and tying it to a mechanical implementation (e.g. somber poet -> deathtouch).
I like all the mechanics you've been using.
A few random thoughts. "combined life gain/loss >=3" is a very good way of tying life mechanics to multiple colours. It's the sort of thing that's often fiddly, but works.
Legendary artwork at rare or mythic rare sounds just right.
Does art need to be a separate type? It's good to establish the principle of living artworks, but potentially confusing if a masterwork doesn't need to be an art.
Liking what you're doing with the uncommons.
I'm not sure if even/odd life is still going to be a mechanic, but if U has difficulty supporting it, would -1/-0 or +1/-1 effects help? Doesn't really help you reach an even life, but helps you stay there, or keep the opponent there. (If the effect cared about both players having the same parity, or either player having an even life, or something).
Likewise, W is never easily going to have a life LOSS card. You can do it -- like in Phyrexia -- but it doesn't come naturally. If there's anything else that filled that slot (e.g. something that triggers off you losing life, so it looks protective, but can also be a good splash in a life loss deck).
1. I wouldn't call Growling Missionary a colour pie break. While it would be more expected as a red or black design, both 1-mana 2/2s and life payment are squarely into what White is allowed to do (especially in a life-matters set) so it is merely a bend. Because aggro is at a disadvantage on Rezatta, I'd be willing to try usually-not-uncommon designs at uncommon such as Isamaru for instance. That being said, it seems to be catching a bit too much attention, which wasn't the point, so I'm thinking of going back to the first concept for this slot with an Adanto Vanguard-type of card.
2. Dance Leader: Could definitely be a sorcery but the archetype it's meant for is "WR power 2 or less" so I figured it would be better as a creature. I don't think 3/1 first strike for 3 is strong enough to immediately make a creature rare, though making it only when attacking could add a safeguard, like Kor Scythemaster. On the other hand, it's true it's still pretty strong in addition of the ETB ability and the additional point of power makes it nonbo with the WR archetype it's supposed to support, so I agree it's probably better back at 2 power ^^
3. Surge of Joy is definitely on the watch list but it's such a great match for the set that I'd be willing to try it as-is before nerfing it. I'm ok if the card would theoretically be banned in older formats, Standard is not supposed to be hold back by how weird Legacy and Modern will eventually get. Manamorphose was 100% the inspiration here, I hope that both the fact that Surge of Joy is white and a sorcery make it less attractive in this style of decks and hasn't been banned so far. I think Gitaxian Probe is different, as the information it gave was really what pushed it over the ban line. When I re-read the ban announcement, its problem was that it was killing the fun, not that it was too strong.
If Surge of Joy eventually needs to be nerfed however, I'm thinking a cool variation might be to check for serran life to either prevent them from cycling into one another or requiring a bit of set-up to enable their full potential. Something that would play like Giant Opportunity or Greenbelt Rampager. Eg.:
W - Sorcery If you have serran life, draw a card. If you have 6 or more serran life, ADDITIONAL STRONGER EFFECT LIKE TOKEN CREATION. Then, you gain 3 serran life.
For the card concepts:
Three-lifelinkers: This variation of Call to the Feast sounds really nice in the set, though I'm afraid I already overshot on the life gain at uncommon, I need to count. Alternatively, that might be a really nice rider for a Rare/Mythic card.
Modal spell: I like the idea of the modal spell but I'd like to stay far enough from the green common modal spell that also featured the same option.
Protection spell: Pretty useful design, it's definitely something we can try if we end up actually cutting Surge of Joy (I'd avoid having two one-mana spells that gives back the mana through serran life).
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Other people: Don't worry, I'll answer a bit later x) I'm running out of space.
UU enchantment: For directional cards (a.k.a. that use the "if you do what matters to my archetype" line such as "whenever you cast your second spell each turn"), I'm trying to aim them towards one specific archetype and keep the synergies with the other draft archetypes more low-key. There are two reasons for this: 1) These directional cards will send draft players into a lane and make sure they receive a handful of cards that are good in their decks but not anyone elses's deck. 2) It helps each archetype feel more unique gameplay wise if the directional cards focus on what's different between them. So I'd avoid putting "If you lost life this turn" or "Whenever you cast your second spell each turn" on the same card as "Masterwork" for instance.
1R creature: That's a really good idea, we had a "whenever CARDNAME attacks, discover" in the file at some point and I really was excited for it. Now we have a problem in red with two cards being able to deal 2 damage to anything each turn (Sparktower Pupil and Bearer of New Light) while I'm realising that the as-fan of discover is probably a bit too low. So, this seems like a great design to replace Spartower Pupil.
W Creature: The concept is fun to read but it ultimately it rewards what the WU archetype is doing with a bonus that is more interesting to the RW and BW archetypes. This is a good example of why we must be careful in mixing archetypes too bluntly on the same card. This would either give a lot of life to the WU archetype, which doesn't really care about life — its synergy with serran life resides more in the mana it produces. On the other hand, the archetypes that would benefit from a lot of life gain would struggle to enable the card.
1B creature: The Art creatures in the set are important flavour wise but they don't have a strong mechanical identity yet so I'm trying to be careful and monitor how they play to make them feel more branded. So far, they're turning into more of a control/combo tribe than an agressive one, and I'd like to implement more of a transformation theme in their effects. This means that I'd like to stay away from generic pump abilities and lord abilities for Art, to make them a bit less about combat.
3G creature: Similarly, to avoid feeling like any BG +1/+1 draft archetype, I'm trying to push for specific types of effects that scale with the number of +1/+1 counters on a single creature and purposefully avoid other kinds of use (such as using them as payment) for +1/+1 counters. I'm also trying to avoid too much incidental life gain because I think the as-fan of life gain at uncommon has already gone overboard >.<
I think the Art creature type is important to sell the flavour of the living art and make the set feel more branded (though I still don't know what to do with the artist subtype which hasn't been that useful so far, I'm still considering just using the already existing "Artificer" subtype as a twist). While masterwork was originally designed to be the Art mechanic, it did ultimately become dissociated. We could add more words for flavour in the reminder text of masterwork to turn your masterwork into an Art but the synergies with what the Art archetype is doing mechanically is probably a bit too tenuous to justify the extra wordiness.
It's an interesting idea to give +1 or -1 power as it would make it easier to keep your life total the right parity by targeting creatures attacking you. However, what the archetype really struggles with is less keeping their life total even that changing it from odd to even, and the fact that the +1 or -1 trick relies on your opponent declaring an attack on you makes it an unreliable way to enable your effects.
White can have life loss cards as a pay-off for life gain archetypes (see Ixalan, for instance) — any color can, in fact. Since Rezatta is all about life, I feel this is definitely the right set to use this less used part of White ^^
As mentioned above, I've switched Growling Missionary to a one-mana version of Adanto Vanguard because the life loss on the previous iteration wasn't super well accepted and I toned down Dance Leader. Both are pretty strong cards but lets try them like this first. Surge of Joy is also on the watch list but if it performs really well in term of smoothing the gameplay we'll keep it as-is. Otherwise, it'll get nerfed.
I also lowered the mana curve of the creatures a little: • Four-Hands Composer: 4-mana 2/3 --> 3-mana 1/3 • Dance Leader: 3-mana 3/1 first strike --> 2-mana 2/2 without first strike Finally, I was a bit concerned with having two token creation engines in white (Court Mentor and Warming Prayer) so I made Court Mentor slightly different.
Time to adjust Blue a bit! It has two main problems right now: it has too many creatures (9) and specifically too many low-cost creatures (three at 1-mana and two at 2-mana). So, we're removing School of Sirens, and we're turning Mistress of Ice into a big monster to offer a top end. While I originally didn't want to be directional with the "enemy wink" slots, since I struggled so much with the blue slot I figured I'd try an exception just for this one.
To continue lowering the creature count, both Book Animist and Shimmering Sonata also become enchantments. While Book Animist remain otherwise unchanged, Shimmering Sonata looked a bit weird so I added a mill rider to increase the synergy with the other mill cards in the set (Arcane Folio at uncommon and Oil Koi at common).
The remaining empty slot will be used for a big sorcery or instant spell, I put a mind control spell to complement the removal in blue, which was a bit on the weak side. Also, it's a very small change but I toned down Orale of New Horizon so it scries 3 instead of 4.
I'm starting to look at Black, I'm pretty ok with how it looks so far, but it's missing two slots. I had this idea but I'm having a hard time evaluating how strong it is, what do you think of this design? Is the first ability too much?
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Monument to Pity: I'd like to keep this cycle open to any deck of that colour, so Art tribal feels a bit too parasitic.
Bare Mannequin: Soul Separator feels like a nice place to start, but I'm unsure if it really is worth a slot power wise — the main purpose of Soul Separator was to be a reanimation spell. Alternatively, I was thinking of using the mechanical trope where the creature can be picked apart like Noosegraf Mob or Oathsworn Knight to signify that the creature is made of pieces attached together, representing limbs and organs.
Maybe +1/+1 counters could represent the limbs in this version. I had a concept I found interesting power wise that plays with this idea of being able to transform the body, though the flavour aspect is a little looser:
For the white one, I've bee looking into a kind of Ajani's Pridemate where the +1/+1 counters represent the guest and something happens when you reach 13. I couldn't find what to do to represent betrayal in white flavour wise, but I got this concept that I thought was interesting mechanically:
We could, I didn't go that route so far because:
1) I already used the "1 token/turn bullet" on another design in white (Warming Prayers) on top of having another token generator in that colour (Court Maester) so it would require switching things around a lot. On the other hand, I didn't have an evergrowing creature in white yet.
2) I figured having an Ajani's Pridemate-like card would be amazing in this set regardless, so I thought it could be worth the exciting legendary slot.
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I think changing the name of the Fatal Banquet would be a good start actually. If it didn't mention anything bad happening in its name, it would be less dissonant flavourfully and probably easier to design as it sounds like the player is building towards a punishment instead of a reward otherwise.
In their place, I'm revisiting a bit the idea of having strong finishers that care about your life total. Here are some examples:
WHITE —
2WW
2/2
Flying
Gets +1/+1 for each life you have more than your starting life total.
BLUE —
That's going to be the tough one.
BLACK —
4BB
10/10
Flying
Gets -X/-X, where X is your life total.
RED —
3RR
0/5
As long as it's attacking a player, gets +X/+0, where X is the difference between that player's life total and your life total.
(N.B: Meant to help aggro fight against a lof of life gain as this scales with the life gain abilities of the opponent.)
GREEN
3GG
5/*
Trample
CARDNAME's toughness is equal to your life total.
For this week, I polished the cycle above a bit. For the blue member, I figured that the simplest, most elegant effect similar to the others that was missing was "-X/-0 where X is the opponent's life total". So here it is, a cycle of Avatars that care about life totals in different ways:
This leaves the uncommon set skeleton at this stage so far:
Now, the missing slots are destined for glue cards. Among the ones we discussed already, here are some that I really liked because they really pull he different archetypes together:
I'm going to try and see what's missing from here to either fill the missing slots, add some abilities to the existing cards to fit some important holes, or straight up remove some cards to make rooms for what's missing.
INSERT NAME - XR
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast ~, pay X life.
Choose one:
*~ deals X damage to target creature or planeswalker.
*Discover X times.
____________________________________
Serran Beauty 3W
____________________________________
Enchantment
____________________________________
Whenever you gain non-serran life,
you gain that much serran life. (Pay
2 serran life: Add one mana of any
color.)
2WW: Target creature gets +X/+X
until end of turn, where X is the
amount of serran life you have.
_____________________________________
The "become stronger as your opponent gets more life" is a bit too niche to be a dedicated archetype because it doesn't do anything unless your opponent specifically plays a life gain deck. However, it is a part of the strategy of the BRW suicide aggro archetype in the set! Because any aggro deck would struggle in a set with a lot of life gain, one of the answers I'm trying to implement is making sure that the aggro decks scale as their opponent gain life. I'm trying to be subtle about it though, for instance by using Renaissance triggers (the cards hint that you're supposed to hurt the opponent to enable them, but they are also active if the opponent gains more than 3 life in the same turn) or by caring if the opponent has more life than you, which is meant to synergise with the life payment BRW theme but also punishes the opponent for gaining life.
Xyurn, Avatar of Fury above is exactly a try at answering the question "how does aggro keep up with a lot of life gain?" It doesn't matter if the opponent has 100 life, just one hit of this creature will bring their life total back to yours.
@Potato13
It's definitely an interesting concept but I feel like the first mode wouldn't be worth the cost as a worse Heat Ray, while Discover X times is a bit awkward as if you pump a lot of mana in the X, you don't have much mana left to cast the cards you discover so this probably would end up being "pay a lot of mana and a lot of life to play a single spell from the top of your library".
@joemamajoe
It's an ability I'd be very interested in having in the set, though I agree with potato13 that it sounds more like a rare or mythic rare ability than uncommon a priori. I also think a replacement ability would be more elegant as this doubles your life gain. Here's an old design we were discussing with a similar ability for instance:
We're at the last stage of finishing the first rough draft of the uncommon set skeleton. The next step will be filling the remaining slots (3 black, 2 red, 3 green) with glue cards. The more archetypes they synergise with, the better. Surge of Joy is a perfect example, it's amazing in WU storm (basically enabling playing two spells that turn for no cost), amazing in WB (enables Renewal that turn at no cost at all), and great in GW as it gives you serran life.
After that, there's going to be a lot of math when we look at the missing staple effects and calculate the as-fan for each theme before modifying the cards so everything looks balanced-ish on paper and no archetype seems overly advantaged. At that point, it will be ready to be playtested and I'll make a clean new thread for that part ^^
I got you, the latest version of the archetypes I've been working with are:
WU (+R): 2nd spell matters
UB (+G): Art enters/leaves the battlefield
BR (+W): Life payment aggro
RG (+U): Creatures are bigger if your life total is even
GW (+B): Serran life matters
WB: Renewal (3 life must be gained and/or lost every turn)
UR: Discover matters
BG: +1/+1 counters matter
RW: Creatures with power 2 or less tribal
GU: Masterwork
Golden Signposts (with corresponding "signpost pairs" below)
Splash Signposts
Legendary Life Totals Cycle (NOT legendary ART Cycle)
Renewal Cycle (W,B repeated)
Removal Spells
Nothing new is added here -- some pictures are probably outdated. But made here since it took me some time to go back and see which cards referred to what :P
Oh that's really nice to do that, thanks a lot! I was lazy and wanted to wait until the skeleton was complete before doing the recap myself x)
CARD NAME - 3GG
Creature - INSERT TYPE
When ~ enters the battlefield, if you have 30 or more life, ~ becomes your masterwork.
Whenever ~ attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on it. If it's your masterwork, put three +1/+1 counters on it instead.
4/3
CARD NAME - 2BB
Creature - INSERT TYPE
As an additional cost to cast ~, you may pay 3 life.
When ~ enters the battlefield, if you paid 3 life, put two +1/+1 counters on it.
3/3
CARD NAME - 1WW
Enchantment
Whenever one or more creatures you control attack, you gain serran life equal to the number of attacking creatures.
Renewal - As long as the sum of all life gained and lost this turn is 3 or more, creatures you control get +1/+1.
CARD NAME - U
Creature - Art Spirit
Flying
Sacrifice ~: Discover. Activate this ability only if ~ dealt combat damage this turn.
1/1
Masterwork card: The first ability looks weird with how the other masterwork cards play since becoming a masterwork is not supposed to be that much of a reward, it's more about offering a strategic decision on what creature you want as your masterwork. I like the last ability, I wanted some kind of "if CARDNAME is your masterwork, bonus" card at uncommon, I'm thinking a colorless card that would help you filter your mana colors to enable a five-colours masterwork meme. I was thinking of adding something like 'as long as CARDNAME is your masterwork, it gets +3/+3" but that ability with +1/+1 counters could fit nicely on it as well (though three +1/+1 counters might be a bit swingy, it feels rare to me). Here's a try:
Black card: Could totally make a nice glue card depending on what's missing from the skeleton. I have to do the math but I think I overshooted dramatically on the creature count xD
White Renaissance card: I love this concept but I usually prefer to have either small repeatable serran life gain or one-shot bursts for larger serran life gains. This is repeatable large bursts of serran life gain, so I think it's better to keep it for Rare/Mythic.
Blue card: Could work as a glue card if we need a cheap creature in blue, I like how it synergises really nicely with all four blue archetypes at once, that's exactly the type of designs we need right now ^^
Thanks a lot for all those concepts!
CARD NAME - W
Instant
Target creature you control gains indestructible until end of turn. If it has power 2 or less, draw a card.
CARD NAME - 1W
Creature - INSERT TYPE
When ~ attacks, you may have defending player gain 3 life. If you do, ~ gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
2/2
CARD NAME - 1U
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep or whenever you cast a spell, put a charge counter on ~.
Remove two charge counters from ~: Discover.
Failing Fruition - 1BB
Sorcery
Destroy target creature. If it was your masterwork, each opponent discards two cards and loses 2 life.
CARD NAME - R
Sorcery
~ Deals 5 damage to target creature. Excess damage is dealt to you instead.
CARD NAME - G
Sorcery
Search your library for a basic land card, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library. You gain 2 life.
CARD NAME - 1G
Instant
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn by non-masterwork creatures
Again, thanks a lot for all these designs!
Indestructible W: Could totally work, white does need a protection spell at the moment and the directional white card (Dance Leader) is on the lesser directional side right now.
Opponent gains life 1W: It's a bit weird to give life to the opponent on attack, and I don't think the synergies would be enough to justify using this in the set in the absence of a group hug archetype.
Repeatable Discover 1U: Could work but would be weird to trigger whenever you cast a spell while there is a whole archetype in blue that cares about casting spells beyond your first. It creates a bit of friction with the Arcane Folio, which is very wordy but I'd still be interested in trying how it plays first.
Destroy your masterwork 1BB: I don't want to encourage players to sacrifice their masterwork to streamline the gameplay and send a clear message about what to do. The masterwork archetype should be entirely focused on making the biggest most absurd creature in combat. Then we can include some sacrifice synergies with other cards, but I really want to avoid them being directional and having the word masterwork on them.
Excess damage deal to you R: Really interesting idea! And we're in need of a creature-only damage spell in red.
Tutor a basic G: We already have a one-mana card that tutors a basic land at common so the ramp uncommon will need to tutor at least two lands directly onto the battlefield, I think.
Fog G: I like the idea of having a fog in the set as it plays well with the GW serran life archetype gameplay, but that's also why I'd rather have not have it associated with the masterwork archetype in a directional way.
__
I've put all the previous designs inside a file to look at the potential structural problems (I went free style while designing them and preferred to adjust later the cards between cycles rather than having too many restrictions during design, but this is the time where we need to adjust some stuff).
GENERAL:
• There are too many creatures (39 out of 60 monocoloured cards). The goal now is to bring that number as close to 30 as possible by turning some designs into noncreature spells, or removing some non-essential creatures.
WHITE:
• 8 creatures. Could remove at least one. The Sacred Confreres probably isn't necessary, the final design didn't really live up to my expectations anyways, so I removed it.
• White really needs a protection slot so I used potato's design above, which replaces the Sacred Confreres:
• All creatures except one are 2/2. There is a dire need to adjust the stats curve. Hence:
- Inspiring Archpriest --> 3/4 for 5 (was 2/2 for 3)
- Rays, Avatar of Victory --> 3/3 (was 2/2, which was probably a bit weak)
- Four-Hands Composer --> stays 2/3 but always grant double strike (had weird ability)
- Serran Soulwarden --> 2/1 and gains flying (was 2/2)
- Dance Leader--> 3/1 (was 2/2)
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So here are the twelve monowhite cards once adjusted:
1. Growling Missionary is definitely a color pie break; White doesn't get those types of 1 mana 2/2's with downsides (Their 1 mana 2/2's generally have some restriction to when or how you cast them, if at all, and not a minor downside that allows you to play it regardless of the board state), and it doesn't lose themselves life.
I feel like it could be a 1 mana 2/1 that gains you 1 serra life when it enters, or be exchanged for another instant or sorcery spell.
2. Dance Leader should definitely be rare with a potent statline and ability like that, and could possibly be exchanged with an instant or sorcery spell.
3. Surge of Joy should be cut or nerfed; it allows you to play with a 56 card deck, easily fix mana, gain life when needed and ramp into 3-drop much easier. Two similar cards, Manamorphose and Gitaxian Probe, were banned / were discussed about being banned in multiple formats.
I'll post more design concepts for both blue and white later.
UU
UC
Masterwork
Whenever you cast a spell beyond the first each turn, your masterwork gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
Archetypes: WU Second Spell, GU Masterwork
———
1R
Creature
UC
Haste
Whenever ~ attacks, discover and ~ deals 2 damage to you.
2/1
(I had also thought of making this a 3 mana 2/2 and removing the “deals 2 damage to you part”)
Archetypes: GU Discover, RW Power 2 or less, the minor red theme for second spell matters (because it discovers cards), and possibly BR reckless aggro
———
W
Creature
UC
Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, you gain life equal to its mana cost.
1/1
(I had an idea of instead of gaining life equal to mana cost, it could be just gain 2 serran life instead)
Archetypes: RW Power 2 or less, WB Gain/lose 3 or more life, and possibly (using the second idea) GW serran life
———
Moonlight Muse
UC
Pay 2 life: Target Art creature you control gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
1/2
Archetypes: UB Art tribal, BR Reckless aggro (sort of?), WB Gain/lose 3 or more life
———
3G
Creature
UC
Remove a +1/+1 counter from ~: You gain 1 serran life.
At the beginning of your end step, put a +1/+1 counter on ~.
2/4
Archetypes: BG +1/+1 counters, RG Even life total, GW Serran Life matters
CARD NAME - 3W
Sorcery
Create three 1/1 white CARD TYPE creature tokens with lifelink.
Purpose: Fits into 2 or less power and 3 life gained/lost.
CARD NAME - 1W
Instant
Choose two --
*You gain 5 life.
*Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.
*Tap up to two target creatures.
Purpose: As an interesting modal card that has value in most decks, and could be a good sideboard card for aggro decks or control decks in standard.
CARD NAME - W
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature you control
When ~ enters the battlefield, you gain 2 serran life.
W, Sacrifice ~: Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and gains indestructible until end of turn.
Purpose: Usable proactively in 2nd spell matters and 2 or less power decks, and can be used well in Serran Life matters. The +2/+2 can also be changed to +1/+1 and indestructible can be changed to protection, if needed or wanted.
I like all the mechanics you've been using.
A few random thoughts. "combined life gain/loss >=3" is a very good way of tying life mechanics to multiple colours. It's the sort of thing that's often fiddly, but works.
Legendary artwork at rare or mythic rare sounds just right.
Does art need to be a separate type? It's good to establish the principle of living artworks, but potentially confusing if a masterwork doesn't need to be an art.
Liking what you're doing with the uncommons.
I'm not sure if even/odd life is still going to be a mechanic, but if U has difficulty supporting it, would -1/-0 or +1/-1 effects help? Doesn't really help you reach an even life, but helps you stay there, or keep the opponent there. (If the effect cared about both players having the same parity, or either player having an even life, or something).
Likewise, W is never easily going to have a life LOSS card. You can do it -- like in Phyrexia -- but it doesn't come naturally. If there's anything else that filled that slot (e.g. something that triggers off you losing life, so it looks protective, but can also be a good splash in a life loss deck).
1. I wouldn't call Growling Missionary a colour pie break. While it would be more expected as a red or black design, both 1-mana 2/2s and life payment are squarely into what White is allowed to do (especially in a life-matters set) so it is merely a bend. Because aggro is at a disadvantage on Rezatta, I'd be willing to try usually-not-uncommon designs at uncommon such as Isamaru for instance. That being said, it seems to be catching a bit too much attention, which wasn't the point, so I'm thinking of going back to the first concept for this slot with an Adanto Vanguard-type of card.
2. Dance Leader: Could definitely be a sorcery but the archetype it's meant for is "WR power 2 or less" so I figured it would be better as a creature. I don't think 3/1 first strike for 3 is strong enough to immediately make a creature rare, though making it only when attacking could add a safeguard, like Kor Scythemaster. On the other hand, it's true it's still pretty strong in addition of the ETB ability and the additional point of power makes it nonbo with the WR archetype it's supposed to support, so I agree it's probably better back at 2 power ^^
3. Surge of Joy is definitely on the watch list but it's such a great match for the set that I'd be willing to try it as-is before nerfing it. I'm ok if the card would theoretically be banned in older formats, Standard is not supposed to be hold back by how weird Legacy and Modern will eventually get. Manamorphose was 100% the inspiration here, I hope that both the fact that Surge of Joy is white and a sorcery make it less attractive in this style of decks and hasn't been banned so far. I think Gitaxian Probe is different, as the information it gave was really what pushed it over the ban line. When I re-read the ban announcement, its problem was that it was killing the fun, not that it was too strong.
If Surge of Joy eventually needs to be nerfed however, I'm thinking a cool variation might be to check for serran life to either prevent them from cycling into one another or requiring a bit of set-up to enable their full potential. Something that would play like Giant Opportunity or Greenbelt Rampager. Eg.:
W - Sorcery
If you have serran life, draw a card.
If you have 6 or more serran life, ADDITIONAL STRONGER EFFECT LIKE TOKEN CREATION.
Then, you gain 3 serran life.
For the card concepts:
Three-lifelinkers: This variation of Call to the Feast sounds really nice in the set, though I'm afraid I already overshot on the life gain at uncommon, I need to count. Alternatively, that might be a really nice rider for a Rare/Mythic card.
Modal spell: I like the idea of the modal spell but I'd like to stay far enough from the green common modal spell that also featured the same option.
Protection spell: Pretty useful design, it's definitely something we can try if we end up actually cutting Surge of Joy (I'd avoid having two one-mana spells that gives back the mana through serran life).
___
Other people: Don't worry, I'll answer a bit later x) I'm running out of space.
UU enchantment: For directional cards (a.k.a. that use the "if you do what matters to my archetype" line such as "whenever you cast your second spell each turn"), I'm trying to aim them towards one specific archetype and keep the synergies with the other draft archetypes more low-key. There are two reasons for this: 1) These directional cards will send draft players into a lane and make sure they receive a handful of cards that are good in their decks but not anyone elses's deck. 2) It helps each archetype feel more unique gameplay wise if the directional cards focus on what's different between them. So I'd avoid putting "If you lost life this turn" or "Whenever you cast your second spell each turn" on the same card as "Masterwork" for instance.
1R creature: That's a really good idea, we had a "whenever CARDNAME attacks, discover" in the file at some point and I really was excited for it. Now we have a problem in red with two cards being able to deal 2 damage to anything each turn (Sparktower Pupil and Bearer of New Light) while I'm realising that the as-fan of discover is probably a bit too low. So, this seems like a great design to replace Spartower Pupil.
W Creature: The concept is fun to read but it ultimately it rewards what the WU archetype is doing with a bonus that is more interesting to the RW and BW archetypes. This is a good example of why we must be careful in mixing archetypes too bluntly on the same card. This would either give a lot of life to the WU archetype, which doesn't really care about life — its synergy with serran life resides more in the mana it produces. On the other hand, the archetypes that would benefit from a lot of life gain would struggle to enable the card.
1B creature: The Art creatures in the set are important flavour wise but they don't have a strong mechanical identity yet so I'm trying to be careful and monitor how they play to make them feel more branded. So far, they're turning into more of a control/combo tribe than an agressive one, and I'd like to implement more of a transformation theme in their effects. This means that I'd like to stay away from generic pump abilities and lord abilities for Art, to make them a bit less about combat.
3G creature: Similarly, to avoid feeling like any BG +1/+1 draft archetype, I'm trying to push for specific types of effects that scale with the number of +1/+1 counters on a single creature and purposefully avoid other kinds of use (such as using them as payment) for +1/+1 counters. I'm also trying to avoid too much incidental life gain because I think the as-fan of life gain at uncommon has already gone overboard >.<
cartesiandaemon
Hey, glad you liked the feel of the set so far!
I think the Art creature type is important to sell the flavour of the living art and make the set feel more branded (though I still don't know what to do with the artist subtype which hasn't been that useful so far, I'm still considering just using the already existing "Artificer" subtype as a twist). While masterwork was originally designed to be the Art mechanic, it did ultimately become dissociated. We could add more words for flavour in the reminder text of masterwork to turn your masterwork into an Art but the synergies with what the Art archetype is doing mechanically is probably a bit too tenuous to justify the extra wordiness.
It's an interesting idea to give +1 or -1 power as it would make it easier to keep your life total the right parity by targeting creatures attacking you. However, what the archetype really struggles with is less keeping their life total even that changing it from odd to even, and the fact that the +1 or -1 trick relies on your opponent declaring an attack on you makes it an unreliable way to enable your effects.
White can have life loss cards as a pay-off for life gain archetypes (see Ixalan, for instance) — any color can, in fact. Since Rezatta is all about life, I feel this is definitely the right set to use this less used part of White ^^
WHITE —
As mentioned above, I've switched Growling Missionary to a one-mana version of Adanto Vanguard because the life loss on the previous iteration wasn't super well accepted and I toned down Dance Leader. Both are pretty strong cards but lets try them like this first. Surge of Joy is also on the watch list but if it performs really well in term of smoothing the gameplay we'll keep it as-is. Otherwise, it'll get nerfed.
I also lowered the mana curve of the creatures a little:
• Four-Hands Composer: 4-mana 2/3 --> 3-mana 1/3
• Dance Leader: 3-mana 3/1 first strike --> 2-mana 2/2 without first strike
Finally, I was a bit concerned with having two token creation engines in white (Court Mentor and Warming Prayer) so I made Court Mentor slightly different.
Here are the before/after comparisons:
Time to adjust Blue a bit! It has two main problems right now: it has too many creatures (9) and specifically too many low-cost creatures (three at 1-mana and two at 2-mana). So, we're removing School of Sirens, and we're turning Mistress of Ice into a big monster to offer a top end. While I originally didn't want to be directional with the "enemy wink" slots, since I struggled so much with the blue slot I figured I'd try an exception just for this one.
To continue lowering the creature count, both Book Animist and Shimmering Sonata also become enchantments. While Book Animist remain otherwise unchanged, Shimmering Sonata looked a bit weird so I added a mill rider to increase the synergy with the other mill cards in the set (Arcane Folio at uncommon and Oil Koi at common).
The remaining empty slot will be used for a big sorcery or instant spell, I put a mind control spell to complement the removal in blue, which was a bit on the weak side. Also, it's a very small change but I toned down Orale of New Horizon so it scries 3 instead of 4.
Here's Blue with those changes: